God no.

Speaking as someone that communicates primarily through text (high likelihood of Autism) the internet was the first chance a lot of us had to ... speak.. and be heard

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bad_haircut72 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why couldn't you write letters instead of texting?

	▲	awesome_dude 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't have your mailing address :P

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deadbabe 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That’s not a problem that generalizes to the broader population. We don’t really need internet.

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fn-mote 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I disagree.

People have a need to be heard and understood. That’s half of what we are doing here posting.

Many (“not disabled”) people don’t fit in with their local peer group / society. The internet gave them a way to connect with other like-minded individuals.

Do I need to give examples? Let’s say: struggling with a rare disease.

	▲	Wowfunhappy 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		But on the other end you have genocide triggered by Facebook. You can't speak if you're dead. Perhaps some of that violence would have happened anyway. I don't know how it all nets out.

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danaris 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In other words "disabled people can suck it, because I don't care about their lives or experiences"?

We often fall short, but as a society we do try to make sure we're accommodating disabled people when we make big changes in our systems.

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awesome_dude 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Just FTR - I read them as being facetious

	▲	danaris 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Poe's Law applies. There are far, far too many people who genuinely think disabled people should just disappear or die for it to be "safe" to be facetious about that without a clear sarcasm indicator.

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cindyllm 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[dead]

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awesome_dude 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Screw the broader population I can speak now dammit!!!!!

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sukhdeepprashit 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I swear this place is like the I'm so special olympics now might as well go to reddit

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manmal 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not much has changed, only people get diagnosed now. I think GP makes actually a good point that, with all its downsides, there are also net positive upsides to the internet.

	▲	bad_haircut72 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		there are upsides but I dont know if its net upside. In this particular example, communicating by text - letter writing has existed for millenia and has arguably degraded considerably in this age of instant messaging

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awesome_dude 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sorry, i know it's a bit "flavour of the month" but I mentioned it because I have a difficulty communicating face to face, which is common amongst a certain group of people, and I figured that mentioning it would help people understand my thinking.